Question for the Money Doctors

Question submitted on Dec 20, 2011.

Question

My husband''s new health insurance has a plan that immediately sends us checks to cover the costs of the medical appointments/treatments until we meet the deductible. I wondered whether we could put those checks toward our credit card balance and make payments on the medical bills instead to pay less interest on our card. Is this a good idea? Thanks.

Answer

If the doctors or hospitals that provided the services for which you are being reimbursed do not charge interest for stretching out your payments, and many do not, it would obviously save you the interest that you would have been paying on the credit card balances.